Mega Man 9
Mega Man 9 | |
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Mega Man | |
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Mode(s) | Single-player |
Mega Man 9
Taking place during the early 21st century, Mega Man 9 continues the adventures of the
Although the game was developed for
Plot
Like previous entries in the series, the fictional events of Mega Man 9 take place during the 21st century ("20XX").
Mega Man breaks into Wily's robot city, which is guarded by powerful robots Wily built with the crowd's donations. Mega Man fights and defeats Wily, who immediately begs for forgiveness, at which point Mega Man scolds Wily by reminding him of all his begging from all previous main Mega Man series games. Mega Man then discovers that Wily was responsible for arresting Dr. Light, and that Light has fallen ill. However, Mega Man's ally
Gameplay
Mega Man 9 is an
Using
Development
Mega Man 9 was co-developed by
Inafune cited the rise of
The development team that worked on Mega Man 9 consisted of about 20 people total.[6] Takeshita explained that although Inti Creates used their previous experience to create the gameplay, the technical aspects, like the graphics and sound, were more difficult to fine-tune. As the team had a tendency to make these attributes complex, Inafune would often scold them to simplify their work and "bring it back to the basics".[20][21] Rather than use NES technology, Mega Man 9 runs on a new, proprietary engine that simulates the behavior of 8-bit video games. The game includes a "Legacy Mode" option, which emulates the low video processing power of the NES by partially rendering sprites, thus causing them to flicker when too many are on screen simultaneously.[20][26] The developers also considered distributing the game on NES cartridges, but without technology to bridge the gap between the cartridges and current gaming hardware, the idea was scrapped.[25] Takeshita clarified that Mega Man 9 is much too large to actually fit on an NES cartridge.[20][26]
Inafune designed both Plug Man and Splash Woman, while the artists at Inti Creates designed the remaining six Robot Masters. Plug Man was used as an example to guide the younger designers in making characters with simple yet unique features. The idea for Splash Woman, the first female Robot Master of the original series, was requested by the planning team.[18] Hornet Man was originally conceived as another female Robot Master named "Honey Woman" before being changed to a male after Inafune presented his design of Splash Woman.[18][27]
Audio
The musical score and sound effects for Mega Man 9 were composed by Ippo Yamada, Ryo Kawakami, Yu Shimoda, and Hiroki Isogai.[28] Yamada, a veteran composer for Capcom at this point, worked "with a sense of nostalgia", while the younger designers had to study and imitate the older games.[29] Sound director Yu Shimoda analyzed the audio of the NES Mega Man games for several months before beginning the project.[28] Yamada insisted that the game contains no actual NES music, but rather the "spirit of NES music", as no such hardware restrictions were present as they had been during the development of the first six games.[26][28] Most of the tracks were created with the quality of these past games in mind, but only a handful actually reference songs from previous games. Character and levels designs were "fundamental to the process of generating the music".[28] Computers running Music Macro Language were used to produce the game's sound effects. Yamada explained that taking away the sound of charging up the Mega Buster allowed for many more sound waves that it would have obscured or blocked out on NES hardware.[28] Still, as a spiritual successor to Mega Man 2, layers of background music were deliberately designed to drop out when simultaneously heard with certain sound effects as they did in that game.[30]
Release
Capcom officially announced Mega Man 9 during July 2008.[31] Official details were first confirmed via the magazines Weekly Famitsu and Nintendo Power, revealing that the title would be appearing on the Nintendo Wii as a WiiWare title.[6][32] It was initially slated to be exclusive to WiiWare, with earlier reports of Microsoft's XBLA and Sony's PSN editions being denied by Capcom.[33][34] Gaming sites like IGN confirmed it for PSN and XBLA shortly thereafter.[35] Various regions including North America, Japan, Europe, and Australia saw releases of the game between September 2008 and June 2009.[1][3][2][4] A mobile phone incarnation of Mega Man 9 was also released in Japan in late 2010.[5]
The North American promotional artwork for the game, designed by Gerald de Jesus of
To help promote the game in Japan, Capcom released merchandise including "E-Tank" energy drinks and two CD soundtracks.[39] The Rockman 9 Original Soundtrack was released on September 12, 2008.[40][41] The soundtrack, consisting of the game's 35 music tracks, includes a booklet with liner notes written by the Inti Creates sound team, as well as artwork and information on the eight Robot Masters.[42] The Rockman 9 Arrange Album released on October 10, 2008,[40][41] featuring remixes of the game's songs arranged by Yamada, his team, and several guest composers from past entries in the Mega Man series.[28][43]
Reception and legacy
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
1Up.com | B+[44] |
Edge | 6/10[45] |
Eurogamer | 8/10[14] |
GameSpot | 8.5/10[7] |
IGN | 8.6/10[46] |
Official Nintendo Magazine | 90%[47] |
PlayStation Official Magazine – UK | 5/10[48] |
Official Xbox Magazine (UK) | 7.5/10[49] |
Mega Man 9 has received mostly positive reviews from gaming magazines and websites. The WiiWare, XBLA, and PSN versions of the game currently hold aggregate percentages of 83, 82, and 77 respectively on
The WiiWare version of Mega Man 9 has received additional recognition from various publications. In Nintendo Power's "Game of the Year" section, Mega Man 9 was scored as the best WiiWare game of 2008 by both readers and staff.[53] It was nominated for "Best Platforming Game for the Wii" by IGN in its 2008 video game awards.[54] It was also nominated for "Best Wii Game" and "Best Downloadable Console Game" on GameSpot's "Best of 2008".[55][56] Gaming Target selected it as part of their "40 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2008" feature.[57] IGN has considered Mega Man 9 as one of the top 15 WiiWare games available.[58] In 2011, IGN listed Mega Man 9 as the 5th-best WiiWare game and the 14th-best PSN game of all time.[59][60]
Although no financial figures for Mega Man 9 have been released, Christian Svensson (Capcom's Vice President of Business Development) debunked all sales rumors shortly after its launch, stating that the company was "cautiously optimistic" about its performance on WiiWare.[61] Both Svensson and Capcom's Seth Killian stated months later that the company was "definitely happy" with the sales of the game.[62][63] Inafune also expressed his satisfaction with the game's success, proclaiming that it far exceeded their expectations.[24][64] A follow-up game, Mega Man 10, was released in March 2010 for WiiWare, PSN, and XBLA. This sequel also features retro-style graphics, audio, and gameplay.[24][65][66] Mega Man 9 was later released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC as part of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, which also made a slight change of allowing the player to unlock all of the former downloadable content.[19]
References
- ^ known in Japan as Rockman 9: Yabou no Fukkatsu!! (ロックマン9: 野望の復活!!, Rokkuman 9: Yabou no Fukkatsu!!, lit. "Rockman 9: The Ambition's Revival!!")
- ^ a b c d e "Capcom Unleashes Mega Man 9 for Digital Download" (Press release). Capcom. September 22, 2008. Archived from the original on September 25, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
- ^ a b "Mega Man 9 - Nintendo - Games". Nintendo. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
- ^ a b c d ロックマン9 野望の復活!! 公式サイト [Rockman 9: Revival of Ambition!! official site] (in Japanese). Capcom. Archived from the original on May 22, 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
- ^ a b Plunkett, Luke (October 1, 2008). "Mega Man 9 XBLA Arrives Tomorrow". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ^ a b Spencer (December 1, 2010). "Mega Man 9 Busts Its Way On To Mobile Phones". Siliconera. Archived from the original on February 20, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
- ^ ISSN 1041-9551.
- ^ CBS Interactive. Archivedfrom the original on December 22, 2009. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
- ^ Inti Creates (September 22, 2008). Mega Man 9 (Wii). Capcom.
Dr. Wily: Ladies and gentlemen, this is not my doing! These robots are Dr. Light's creations. This proves he's had evil designs on the world all this time!
- ^ Inti Creates (September 22, 2008). Mega Man 9 (Wii). Capcom.
Dr. Wily: I, Dr. Wily, have created my own robots to stop Dr. Light. But only your donations can help me complete them. Once my robots are finished, they will save the world!
- ^ Inti Creates (September 22, 2008). Mega Man 9 (Wii). Capcom.
Auto: I've figured out something from the product code on that piece of scrap Mega Man picked up. That robot's period of use had expired, and it was scheduled to be scrapped. Roll: I feel bad for those robots, but their expiration dates are decided by law.
- ^ Inti Creates (September 22, 2008). Mega Man 9 (Wii). Capcom.
Dr. Wily: Just because you reached some arbitrary expiration date doesn't mean you should be scrapped! You're all still quite useful! You have a right to live! I'm going to help you. Together we'll show the world how useful you all still can be!
- ^ Inti Creates (September 22, 2008). Mega Man 9 (Wii). Capcom.
Dr. Wily: Dr. Light was taken away by the police, was he not? That wasn't a real officer; it was a fake police robot I created. Dr. Light is in the next room, but he fell ill so he's sleeping now. You have to hurry and get him to a hospital! This way. Mega Man: Dr. Light! Proto Man: You're a fool, Mega Man! It's a trap! That's the Dr. Light robot Wily used to make that fake video!
- ^ Inti Creates (September 22, 2008). Mega Man 9 (Wii). Capcom.
Narrator: Mega Man once again put a stop to Dr. Wily's evil plans. Dr. Light was found to be innocent of all wrongdoing, and was able to return to his laboratory. The future holds the promise of peace for the people of Earth... Dr. Wily, however, was nowhere to be found...
- ^ a b c Whitehead, Dan (September 29, 2008). "Mega Man 9 Xbox 360 Review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- ^ 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. Archived from the originalon June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
- ^ Bozon, Mark (September 25, 2008). "Mega Man 9: Unlocking Proto Man". IGN. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
- ^ Brudvig, Eric (October 6, 2008). "Mega Man 9 DLC This Week". IGN. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- ^ CBS Interactive. October 16, 2008. Archivedfrom the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2008.
- ^ a b Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 is available now! Archived October 28, 2017, at the Wayback Machine -Capcom Unity
- ^ from the original on May 9, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2008.
- ^ a b Locke (August 5, 2008). "Interview with Mega Man 9 Producer - Hironobu Takeshita". UGO Networks. Archived from the original on July 8, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ ISSN 1747-7859.
- ^ Theobald, Phil (September 17, 2005). "Mega Man on PSP – Keiji Inafune and Tatsuya Kitabayashi Interview". GameSpy. IGN. Archived from the original on December 13, 2009. Retrieved May 8, 2010.
- ^ ISSN 1041-9551.
- ^ 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. Archived from the originalon June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ^ a b c d DiMola, Nick (August 5, 2008). "Mega Man 9 to Include Screen Flicker and Slowdown Options". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
- ISSN 1041-9551.
- ^ a b c d e f Jeriaska (October 4, 2008). "Mega Man 9 music interview with Inti Creates' Ippo Yamada". Siliconera. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- ^ Chris (May 2010). "Interview with Ippo Yamada, Ryoi Kawakami, and Hiroki Isogai". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. Archivedfrom the original on June 2, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- ^ Casamassina, Matt (July 10, 2008). "Pre-E3 2008: Mega Man 9 Trailer and Details". IGN. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- ^ ロックマン9 野望の復活!! [Rockman 9: Revival of Ambition!!]. Weekly Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain, Tokuma Shoten. July 18, 2008. p. 232.
- ^ Watt, Steve (July 1, 2008). "Capcom Says Mega Man 9 WiiWare-Only After All". 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
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- ^ Casamassina, Matt (July 10, 2008). "Pre-E3 2008: Mega Man 9 Trailer and Details". IGN. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved August 29, 2008.
- ^ a b Kramer, Chris (July 22, 2008). "Mega Man 9 crazy "boxart" spotted in the wild at E3". Capcom Unity. Capcom. Archived from the original on July 27, 2008. Retrieved July 27, 2008.
- ^ Diamonon, John (September 16, 2008). "Mega Man 9 Retail Package?!?". Capcom. Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2008.
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- ^ Spencer (August 15, 2008). "Mega Man energy tanks ready for real life consumption". Siliconera. Archived from the original on April 2, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
- ^ a b Greenhough, Chris (August 8, 2008). "Mega Man 9 soundtrack to Rock(man) Japan soon". Joystiq. Archived from the original on December 7, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2008.
- ^ Condé Nast Publications. Archivedfrom the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
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External links
- Official website (in Japanese)